FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



in muddy or warm waters, but seeks its home 

 in swift and rocky streams, which it ascends, nearly 

 to their sources, to spawn. Its coloration is olive 

 on the back, with a brassy lustre on the sides, 

 a white belly with several dark cross-blotches, 

 irregularly arranged, which, however, disappear 

 in very old specimens. The head of this sucker 

 is flattened above, and is concave crosswise between 

 the eyes, which gives it a peculiar physiognomy 

 easily recognizable. 



There is a sucker of the Great Lakes, and 

 doubtless of Lake Champlain and eastward, in 

 the ponds and lowland streams of New England, 

 called the creek fish or chub sucker, and ichthyo- 

 logically known as the Erimyzon sucetta, the ge- 

 neric name from two Greek words, signifying " an 

 intensive particle" and "to suck;" the specific 

 from the French, sucet, "sucker." The colora- 

 tion of this fish varies greatly in the age of indi- 

 viduals, and that of the sexes is widely diverse, — 

 the males in spring usually having three large tuber- 

 cles on each side of the snout, and the anal fin is 

 more or less swollen. It seldom grows longer than 

 ten inches. There is a varietal form of this spe- 

 cies designated as oblongus, " oblong," which, as 

 its scientific name implies, is longer and less com- 

 pressed than the typical fish just described. It is 

 226 



